It's highly unlikely that I'll ever be able to safely train judo again, and I needed to remove the self-imposed pressure to do so unsafely. Packed up the gi and belt, took down the competition videos and switched the style fields back. No sense in pretending I'm something that I'm not, y'know?

You have my empathy, maybe moreso than before. You might want to put something like "concussion recovery" in your style field so people can simultaneously know A) that you're not training and B) why you're not training.

I have always taken "None" in a person's style field as a warning that said person might only be on this site to talk ****, though I could be alone in this.

You have my empathy, maybe moreso than before. You might want to put something like "concussion recovery" in your style field so people can simultaneously know A) that you're not training and B) why you're not training.

This would imply that I'd be resuming training martial arts when my symptoms have cleared. I won't be, at least not until they've found a way to reverse chronic traumatic encephalopathy. I really cannot abide the idea of repeating the events of the last ten months (or worse).

Originally Posted by Robstafarian

I have always taken "None" in a person's style field as a warning that said person might only be on this site to talk ****, though I could be alone in this.

Which is a fair assessment. I'm not really qualified to say much on the subjects of striking or grappling, so... it fits.

The fact that you're having to wait so long for good medical attention is indicative of what's wrong with socialized medicine. The same crap being pushed here in the US.

It's got its ups and downs. I'm actually really impressed that I got my knee MRI within six weeks of the request. Not bad for "free." Also, if I were to get seriously ill with something that was treatable, there's no question I'd rather do it here in Canada.

The problem is that CTE doesn't show up until the autopsy, and it's untreatable at present anyway. I hold out hope for breakthroughs along these lines, but it's going to be a full decade at best before there are any medical interventions.

The fact that you're having to wait so long for good medical attention is indicative of what's wrong with socialized medicine. The same crap being pushed here in the US.

I agree with everything in your post before and after this, but the above quote is indicative of the kind of bullshit that makes me violently angry.

I have Spastic Cerebral Palsy and the only reason I ever had health insurance was because my mother was a nurse. Unfortunately, seven years ago she was forced to retire early due to complications of her Lupus. Since then, no one in our household has had health coverage of any kind. My father has chronic heart problems, to give you an idea of just how much my household needs health care.

Has Russ had to wait seven years for health care the way my family has?

We have been able to pay for some things out of pocket and some things were covered by some commercial entity's Trustee Fund (go ahead, ask me about my ER visit), but we have been effectively disenfranchised for almost a decade.

I could go on with details, but the point that I wish I could make on the floor of a joint session of congress is this: health care is essential to the public good, no different than the police and fire departments, and should therefore be a public utility essential service. Our country has enormous medical resources and they will not magically disappear if they're paid for by our taxes.

Businesses can function outside of a purely capitalist system, and no one has yet given me a cogent argument for why hospitals should turn a profit. A problem with capitalism, not that I'm arguing that we should leave it behind, is that it gives the provider of a product or service an incentive to reduce the quality level (because it increases the profit margin).

I normally restrain myself from making posts like this because they belong on Sociocide, but this post isn't any more out of place than the quoted portion of your post.

This would imply that I'd be resuming training martial arts when my symptoms have cleared. I won't be, at least not until they've found a way to reverse chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

Yow. Sorry, pal. The good news is that life is full of awesome activities that don't involve getting conked on the noggin'. In any case, I encourage you to change your style field to "Dementia Pugilistica."

“Most people do not do, but take refuge in theory and talk, thinking that they will become good in this way” -- Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, II.4

Yow. Sorry, pal. The good news is that life is full of awesome activities that don't involve getting conked on the noggin'. In any case, I encourage you to change your style field to "Dementia Pugilistica."

I've been doing ballroom dancing for the last month and a half. It's okay, I guess. Should eventually get around to submitting the paperwork for my firearms PAL, but I don't have anywhere to go and shoot at the moment.

On a different note:

Guar gum gels like you would not believe. Last night I put about eight grams of it in with a cup of water, and it'd turned the cup's contents into jelly before most of it even had the chance to dissolve. I can only assume it did a bang-up job of slowing digestion of the various fats, proteins and vitamins I chased it with.